Dagenham & Redbridge boss Daryl McMahon admitted his side were 'a million miles away' from what they want to be in their 2-0 loss at Woking.
Reece Grego-Cox and Rohan Ince netted three minutes apart to put the Cardinals on top after half an hour of their National League meeting.
And below-par Daggers failed to make much of an impact on a 'poor afternoon'.
"I'm the manager of the football club and the buck stops with me in terms of the result, and I'm not happy with the performance in the first half," said McMahon.
"It's a million miles away from what we want to look like and what we want to be and what we have been.
"I know it's the second game of the season but we very quickly have to sort ourselves out. It was a poor afternoon from us.
"We started the game ok, the first 20 minutes it was quite a close game. Then after the break the goal we've conceded was poor from our perspective again.
"We spoke about it last week, don't give the opposition a head start, against anybody in this league. And against a team as good as Woking, you're not going to get back into the game."
Daggers had gifted Gateshead a 2-0 lead inside 12 minutes on the opening day of the season, but fought back to earn a point thanks to goals from Paul McCallum before half-time and Junior Morias in stoppage time.
And they fell behind again when Grego-Cox converted from a corner, with Ince heading a second from another set-piece soon after.
The hosts went closest to adding to the scoreline in the second half, with former Dagger Luke Wilkinson heading against the crossbar.
And McMahon added: "They blocked two or three chances in the second half which I thought they done really well.
"And that was the difference in the teams if you look at it. In both boxes they were better than us. Simple as that.
"Woking are a very good team, I'm not taking anything away from Woking, but my job is to worry about Dagenham & Redbridge and we were well below what we need to be and where we want to be come the end of the season.
"We need to buck our ideas up really quick. We need to find some form and rhythm really, really quickly.
"It's easy to say about the heat or wash it off as a bad day, but that doesn't work with me to be honest.
"We demand more of each other than what we've seen today and we need to see a reaction. You can't forget about it, you've got to learn from it."
Daggers return to action at Eastleigh on Tuesday and McMahon was grateful for the early chance to try and bounce back.
"The best thing about being a football player is when you have a day like we had today you've got an opportunity three days later to bounce back and show some pride, some passion and quality," he said.
"We've got another tough game away to Eastleigh on Tuesday night and the games come thick and fast.
"When you play like that you have to learn and put a performance in on Tuesday night.
"You've got people coming here paying to watch us today and people travelling to Eastleigh after work on Tuesday to watch us again. You can't dish up a performance like that.
"The buck stops with me, I'm the manager, but we need to perform better than we have done today for sure."
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